Hurricane Bill, the first of the Atlantic storm season, doused Bermuda with heavy rain yesterday as it barreled past the islands, raising fears of life-threatening waves along the US east coast.
Packing winds of 165km an hour, the hurricane was set to head perilously close to the upscale island resort of Martha’s Vineyard, where US President Barack Obama and his family are heading for vacation today.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned of “extremely dangerous” surf and “life-threatening rip currents” throughout a vast area including the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
But the center downgraded the hurricane a notch to Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, meaning the storm threatens to cause widespread damage but does not carry the same potential to destroy weak homes as a Category 3 storm.
In the Dominican Republic, on the island of Hispaniola, authorities reported waves up to 3m high churned up from Bill’s passage.
Bermuda shut down its main international gateway, L.F. Wade International Airport, for the night as the tourist island bunkered in.
“It’s quite wild at the moment, but we’re used to hurricanes in Bermuda,” said Lorna Cervantez, who works at the island’s Royal Palms Hotel. “From our previous experience, we have to get ready.”
Residents of the British overseas territory with gas cylinders were asked to turn them off as they could become dangerous projectiles if winds pick up.
Bermuda was expected to avoid a direct hit from Bill as the hurricane churns past it on its way to near Massachusetts in time for the Obamas’ arrival.
Yacht owners battened down the hatches at Martha’s Vineyard, a popular island of tranquility for the rich and famous where the US first family was scheduled to spend a week unwinding for the first time since Obama’s inauguration in January.
“Phones are ringing off the hook and the hurricane is all people are talking about,” said Ned Kaiser, the assistant harbor master at Martha’s Vineyard.
“We’re hearing we’ll have pretty big seas with the storm surge coming. Out in the ocean now, the waves are 12 to 15 feet [3.7m to 4.6m].”
One of the most prominent people affected by the hurricane was coincidentally also named Bill — former US president Bill Clinton, who was taking a vacation in Bermuda with his wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the power couple left on Thursday, but would not comment on the next stop in their vacation, which Clinton aides have kept a closely guarded secret.
It was the latest bad vacation news for the itinerant travelers, who canceled an earlier holiday on the Greek island of Corfu after the US diplomatic chief broke her elbow, forcing her to skip a trip to a regional conference there.
US oil giant Exxon Mobil said it was evacuating all 200 workers from a gas platform off the Canadian east coast ahead of Hurricane Bill’s expected weekend arrival.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a week-long diplomatic blitz of South America on Thursday by inaugurating a massive deep-water port in Peru, a US$1.3 billion investment by Beijing as it seeks to expand trade and influence on the continent. With China’s demand for agricultural goods and metals from Latin America growing, Xi will participate in the APEC summit in Lima then head to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, where he will also make a state visit to Brazil. Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening
IT’S A DEAL? Including the phrase ‘overlapping claims’ in a Chinese-Indonesian joint statement over the weekend puts Jakarta’s national interests at risk, critics say Indonesia yesterday said it does not recognize China’s claims over the South China Sea, despite signing a maritime development deal with Beijing, as some analysts warned the pact risked compromising its sovereign rights. Beijing has long clashed with Southeast Asian neighbors over the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety, based on a “nine-dash line” on its maps that cuts into the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of several countries. Joint agreements with China in the strategic waterway have been sensitive for years, with some nations wary of deals they fear could be interpreted as legitimizing Beijing’s vast claims. In 2016,
RSS